Naked Hawaiian Pineapple Wedding Cake

Naked Hawaiian Pineapple Wedding Cake. This tropical cake is the perfect showstopper for your next special occasion. 

Serves 10

3 cups (360g) walnuts, finely chopped

500g fresh grated pineapple

3 tsp baking soda

3 cups (375g) plain flour

3 cups (660g) caster sugar

6 eggs, beaten

3 tsp vanilla extract

Pineapple & Vanilla Icing

250g cream cheese, softened

1⁄2 cup icing sugar

125g butter

1 tsp vanilla extract paste, with seeds

Candied Walnuts

1 cup (120g) walnut halves

1⁄4 cup caster sugar

1 tbsp unsalted butter

Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease and line 2 x 20cm springform cake pans with baking paper. Spread walnuts over a baking tray and toast in oven for 10-15 minutes, until just starting to brown. Place grated pineapple over sieve to drain, and reserve the juice for the icing.

Combine baking soda, flour and sugar in a large bowl. Add eggs, pineapple, vanilla and toasted walnuts. Mix well with a wooden spoon to combine. Pour batter into the prepared cake pans. Bake in oven for 1 hour. Turn out cakes and allow to cool completely.

To make the icing, beat softened cream cheese until fluffy. Add the icing sugar, softened butter and vanilla. Fold in 1⁄3 cup of the reserved pineapple juice.

To make candied walnuts, heat a medium non-stick frying pan over a medium heat, add walnuts, sugar and butter. Stir for 5 minutes, taking care the mixture doesn’t burn, especially towards the end of the time. When sugar

mixture starts melting, stir constantly until all sugar is melted and nuts are coated. Transfer immediately onto a greased baking paper and separate the nuts right away. Once the coating hardens, after 5-7 minutes, roughly chop or leave whole.

Spread cream cheese mixture on one cake and sandwich the two cakes together. Spoon more icing over the top and spread with a palette knife. Decorate cake with pineapple flowers and candied walnuts.